Free! Makes All Sept. 11 Spirit Seats Occupied

Spirit Airlines booked all 13,400 of its free seats for travel on Sept. 11 in less than eight hours, a spokeswoman for the Miramar-based carrier said Wednesday.

The seats went online at 8 a.m., and were snapped up by travelers. The carrier's Web site was frequently unavailable to ticket seekers who exceeded its available capacity to accept reservations, spokeswoman Laura Bennett said. The tickets were only offered online and through travel agents.

While the offer was aimed to create good will, it may have backfired with some. Those who were not able to get through to make a reservation expressed disappointment with the process. "I just love companies that promise something and then just can't deliver or execute it properly," said one e-mail correspondent to the Sun-Sentinel.

The message was signed "Never Flying Spirit Airlines Non-Customer."

But for thousands of others, the offer announced on Tuesday was a chance to catch a free trip. Spirit said it was giving away all seats on about 90 flights scheduled for Sept. 11 as a thank-you to its customers and to encourage people to travel the country that day.

Bennett said the airline's Web site had recorded 50,000 visits by noon on Wednesday. "It's reinforcement that our message resonated," she said.

Analysts agreed the seat giveaway should be publicity positive for Spirit, which because of its small size often flies below the radar screen when consumers pick a carrier.

Spirit flies to 14 cities with 30 planes and is the 13th largest all-jet airline in the country. It employs about 2,400 people.

No other airline matched the Spirit offer, although a hotel near Orlando did. The 800-room Holiday Inn Family Suites Resort said it plans to give away the 550 rooms as yet unsold for Sept. 11. "We should all be doing everything we can to encourage Americans to travel and thank those who do," managing director Terry Whaples said.